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In his 16 years as president, Spanier and his administration had a history of circling the wagons in the face of criticism or scrutiny, fitting into what many say was an insular Penn State culture that preceded his tenure. It occurred when high-profile Penn State employees came under fire, when student actions threatened to embarrass the university, and when people sought to obtain information that almost any other public institution would be required to release.</p>
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<p>Paul McLaughlin said he experienced a prime example of that habit of closing ranks. A decade ago, he says, he told Penn State officials, including Spanier, a horrific story: years before, when he was a boy, a professor had sexually molested him repeatedly, sometimes on the Penn State campus. He even said he had a tape recording in which the professor, who still taught at the university, admitted to the abuse.</p>
<p>But McLaughlin said he was rebuffed.</p>
<p>He told me whatever I wanted to get from the school, I wasnt going to get it, and this was a guy with an impeccable reputation, and unless he was convicted of a crime, they werent interested, McLaughlin, now 45 and a private investigator in Phoenix, recalled of his short phone conversation with Spanier. When I offered to send him the tape, he said, Dont bother. That was his exact words.</p>
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<p>Two former department chairmen said one of the expectations of their jobs is that they tailgate before football games, mingling for hours.</p>
<p>The football games, thats where the money is, one said. Several times a year, thousands of alumni come back, and its a chance to stroke them and show off to them, and I was told I should be a part of that.</p>
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